"An Irish Workench" Topic

Latest Workbench update on the blog with Elizabethan and Jacobean troops for Ireland.

link

! When they get there, tell them to say, "Hi! My General!"

Many North Irish, fighting in the Elizabethan age, fought under the banner of Hugh O'Neill (red hand), my ancestor.

O'Neil the Earl of Tyrone was the main leader of the Irish Rebellion in the Nine Years War. He even had pike and shot in the European mould as well as the traditional Irish Kern and Gallowglass.

My Seanathair, who I must admit was a Kerryman, once told me that the O'Neils were well-known cattle thieves, and I shall not gain-say him, or the world is done for, sure.

Well yes they were, but any noble family were at that time. Cattle were the main signifier of wealth and these lords made war on each other frequently, often in the form of cattle raids.

Of course the most famous story in Irish mythology story of " Táin Bó Cúailnge" ; The cattle raid of Cooley.

Indeed, not too much different from the Scottish borders during the same period, raid and counter raid, family feuds etc. George McDonald Fraser makes the point that when the troublesome Grahams were evicted from the Scottish border and moded to Ulster it must all have been depressingly familiar.

Makes for good scenarios for us though!

Yep. My father was a vet (now retired) in the Clogher Valley, and one of this biggest clients (unsurprisingly) was a well know family of cattle farmers with a large heard. A few years ago I was listening to "A Short History of Ireland" by Radio Ulster (which is an excellent production, by the way, and available as an audiobook), and it described how James I planted some troublesome reivers from Scotland to the Clogher Valley, naming a number of families. Of course my father's clients were among them.
I hasten to add that by our time they had become law abiding pillars of the community.

Which reminds me I must get some more cattle!